Rise of the Animorphs, 1, the beggining
by Grimwar
Summary: (Rated T for blood, and Gore. No obvious or intentional sexual themes.) The Animorphs are more than a rebel group. Elfangor did not create them. And they are not human.
1. Prologue

My name was Jake, not that that matters much anymore. I cannot tell you my old last name, or our old addresses, it is too dangerous. And we have to be careful, so careful that we trust no one. Even if we lived with our birth families we would eventually be discovered. And every last one of us will be hunted to extinction by the Controllers. The Controllers are everywhere, EVERYWHERE.

Wait, I am getting way ahead of myself, lets go back to where it started. In the beginning We were human children, nothing extraordinary. But the Ancestral Power came to us and whisked us away when we were in great peril. The Ancestral Power created us, the Animorphs. Because he was sick and tired of the Andalite's and Controller's war destroying entire worlds. And created us so we could someday defeat the Controllers and make everybody free. Or if necessary annihilate them forever, if the most extreme approach was necessary.

They Ancestral Power taught us how to hunt, scavenge, fade away, fight...and survive. There are eight of us. The only eight members of the Animorph Race. Only eight members of the most hunted endangered species on Earth. There is Mareculus, the strategist, Casserelor, the medic, Tobaill, the Admiral, Rechatol, the Warrior, Kellora, the teacher, Jap, the scavenger, Jamoreas, the luetenant, and me, Jaekora, the leader.


	2. Innocence Remembered

Jake's P.O.V.

Human. What we used to consider ourselves, before... Before we were found the first time, before our evolution, before our first encounter. Most of us barely survived being found the first time, 'most.' We surely won't live through our second uncovering. One Friday night at the mall, I was there with Marco and James, my best friends. Me and Marco were playing video games and hanging out at this cool store that sells comic books and stuff with James. The usual. Marco and I had run out of quarters for the games, right when he was winning by a lot of points. Mostly were equally good at games. I have Sega at home so I get lots of practice time in, but Marco has this amazing ability to analyze games and figures out games and figure out all the little tricks. So sometimes he beats me.

Well anyway, we were out of money and getting ready to head home when we ran into Tobias. Tobias is a strange kind of guy. He was new at school, and he wasn't the toughest kid in school, so he got picked on a lot. I actually met Tobias when he had his head in a toilet. There were these two big guys holding him down and laughing while they flushed.

Sending Tobias's straggly blond hair swirling around the bowl. I told the two creeps to step off, I guess they either knew they were outnumbered or my (as James called it) 'leader mojo'. Ever since then, Tobias figured I was his friend. "Whats up?" Tobias asked. I shrugged, "not much. We're heading home." I said.

"We ran out of quarters and it's late so we are heading home," James commented. "Certain people keep forgetting that the SleazeTroll shows up right after you cross the Nether Fjord. So certain people keep losing the game, and losing our quarter." Marco and James kept jerking his thumb his thumb at me just in case Tobias couldn't figure out who he meant by 'certain people'.

"So like, maybe I'll walk home with you guys?" Tobias said, "Sure, why not?" We were just exiting the bathroom when someone ran into me and Marco. "Aaaah", "whaaa?!" But Tobias dodged out of the way.

"Ooff" whoever hit us grunted and then he said. "You jerks, you ******* ********!" The boy who said that couldn't be more than 10 years old because he was even shorter than Marco, was Native American, dirty, with black hair and golden eyes and was wearing extremely tattered clothes, and angry to the point where he looked almost feral.

Then James said "uh, hello I am Ja..." but he was interrupted. "Tobias! My friend oh no I am to late! Your hair is wet, what did those **** faces do to you?" We were all so irked by Julio's display of vulgar (except Tobias) that not even Marco could joke about it. "Julio, they're not bullies, there my friends."

Tobias introduced us and then Julio said. "Well, we appear to have a little problem. Tobias is supposed to be home at 10:00 and it is around 9:45." Tobias looked very concerned and said. "If we go home the long way around we will not be able to make it home in time. But maybe if we take a little shortcut we could get us home in time."

We were all shocked except Tobias and Julio. There are two ways to get home from the mall, either you could go a long way around, which is the safe way. Or we could go through the abandoned construction site and hope there weren't any ax murderers hanging around in there. My mom and dad have sworn to ground me until I'm twenty if they ever found out I've cut through the construction site.

And me, being the sensible one said. "Hey, guys, this is the 'construction site', you may be taking the shortcut, but if there are any crazies in there, they will chew you up and spit you out." Then Julio responded. "I know what you mean man, there is a **** load of stuff that goes on there, but me and my friend here have braved it, and nobody's there. Except for a few homeless suckers." "If we go together, we should be a lot more safer than if we are going through there alone" James said.

Sometimes, very rarely, I so achingly, so longingly wish James had said the opposite of what Tobias and Julio had voted for. I was so young. Still innocent. "So, I guess it's 3 to 2, we'll come with you then." I said.

We were heading for the exit when I spotted Rachel, Cassie, and Kelly. Rachel is very pretty, although, since she is my cousin, I don't really think of her that way. She has blond hair and blue eyes and that very clean, very wholesome look. She's one of those people who always know the right clothes to wear and how to look like they just walked out of one those fashion magazines girls like. She's also very graceful because she takes gymnastics, even though she says she is too tall to ever really be good at it.

Cassie is sort of the opposite. For one thing. She's usually wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, or something else real casual. She's African American and wears her hair very short most of the time. She had it longer for a while, but then she went back to short, which I like. Cassie is quieter than Rachel, more peaceful, like she understands everything on some different, more mystical level.

I guess you could say I sort of 'like' Cassie. Sometimes we sit together on the bus, even though I never know what to say to her.

Kelly is not as pretty as Rachel, but still attractive. She wears her wavy black hair in a ponytail, wears glasses and has freckles. I do not know much about her because she became James's girlfriend only a couple of days ago. But James said she is sort of a lost soul. Kelly is sort of looking for meaning in her life.

"You gals going home?" Julio asked. "I mean, you shouldn't go through the construction site by yourselves." And of course he wouldn't be Julio unless..."There are also tons of ******* in there that would totally jack you up good like the ************* they..."

"UUGH how dare you speak that way!" Kelly said, as she has a thing against vulgarity. "Especially in front of girls!" James opened his mouth to stop the argument but was interrupted. "I'd appreciate it if they did walk with us," Cassie said. "I know you're not 'afraid' of anything, Rachel, but I guess I am."

Rachel couldn't say much about that. That's the way Cassie is-she always has the right way to stop any argument without making anyone feel bad.

So, there we were. The five of us-Marco, Rachel, Julio, Kelly, James, Cassie, Tobias, and me. Five normal mall rats heading home. Sometimes I think about that one, last moment when we were still human. It's like it was a million years ago, like it was some totally different group of kids. You know what I was afraid of right then? I was afraid of admitting to Tom that I hadn't made the basketball team. That was as scary as my old, innocent, human life got back then.

Five minutes later my humanity shall be forsaken. And We will only have the sweet blissful memory, of innocence remembered.

To all of you boys and girls out there ho ho ho Grimwar is here but I have a few questions, actually, one. Can you guys please give me some constructive criticism, I feel I might need it.

THIS. IS. GRIMWAR!


End file.
